[Carmen]We sat and waited. I kept doing my best to keep my mom company. Rock joined us. He offered us the deck of cards and Lily offered to play a game with us to pass the time. As the time passed, we heard people rushing around. Rock and Lily helped keep me and Mom distracted from everything else. About thirty minutes after we got there, Trent arrived. Beth’s family came into the waiting room some time later. That meant it had been over an hour since Lily called them. Werewolf births were usually pretty quick, being on par with natural wolf births and never taking longer than twelve hours. It might be a whole night. I might not be going to work the next day, but I was determined to be there for my brother. I wished we had a better timeline of when labor actually started. If we knew, my mom and Beth’s mom wouldn’t be so worried. In werewolf culture, most first births took place between eighteen and twenty. They were concerned something could go wrong. When a nurse came into the waiting room, the tension in the air increased. Rock took my hand and held it. I didn’t think he was worried. I was pretty sure he was doing it for me. “Baby A and B, the boys, have been born. We saw labor fall off after the second one. It looks like the little girl wants to make an entrance. Everything is being monitored, but we are still optimistic that we can get her delivered naturally. It just might take a while,” the nurse told us. “What’s the other option?” my mom asked. “Caesarean birth. We normally only use it if the mother is severely injured or dead. The only way we would consider that is if one or both of them are in danger. Don’t worry. We know what we’re doing. We will take the boys to the nursery shortly. I’ll come back to let you know about the progress with little miss,” she replied. She left and the mood in the room became a mix of happiness and concern. Multiples could be like this. A pair of twins I knew from school were born five hours apart. It didn’t matter. We would stay until they were all born, and we could see Beth and Mike. It was a tradition for werewolves. Family and very close friends were often in the room within the first hour after pups were born. We were very social, and births were family events. I would need to talk to Rock about how our traditions differed there. Maybe we could find a compromise. After a while, someone else came into the room. I was sitting with Alpha Trent, Luna Lily, and Rock. My mom and Beth’s parents were together. The person came over to where we were sitting. “Alpha, the boys are in the nursery now. Would you like to go see them?” “Not until the girl is born. I want my Beta and his mate to be there. Take good care of them and let me know when all of our Beta’s family is here. We won’t leave until all three babies have been born,” Trent replied. It amazed me how calm Trent was. He was the Alpha and had a lot of responsibilities, but he was still so kind and caring towards his pack members. He was someone to look up to. I was proud to be a part of his pack.As we waited for the little girl to be born, Rock clasped my hand. I leaned my head on his shoulder and felt his warmth engulf me. He was my rock, my constant in this unpredictable world. I knew I could count on him to be there for me, no matter what.Time ticked by slowly. Eventually, playing card games was no fun and I couldn’t focus enough to read. Rock fell asleep, but I stayed close to him. I didn’t want him to wake up and not see me there. It might worry him. From time to time, I would work with my magic, spreading it so I could see everyone in the room, then bringing it back. No one seemed to notice. The door opened again while I was moving my magic around the room. My mom and Beth’s parents stood up. I squeezed Rock’s hand, but the change in the feeling of the room seemed to have already woken him up. “The last baby has been born. We can take immediate family, the Alpha, and the Luna in a few minutes,” the nurse announced. “We are just moving them to their suite now.”We were all thrilled. The room seemed to burst into noise. I checked my watch. It was almost seven in the morning. “Do you need to go?” I asked Rock quietly. “No. I’ll text Tripp and Viola. They can take care of everything today. We’ll go see the babies and your brother, then we can go home and take a nap,” Rock replied. I smiled. Rock always knew what to say to make me feel better. As we followed the nurse to the maternity room, I could hear the soft cries of the newborn babies. My heart swelled with joy.While we walked, I spread my magic. I wanted to see everything. The Alpha and Luna were in the lead, followed by Beth’s parents and my mom. None of Beth’s siblings were there, but I assumed they would come over the next week to see the pups. Rock and I were the only ones after the parents. Once we were in the room, I saw Beth and Mike. Their arms were full of babies. Beth held two smaller ones, while Mike held the one that seemed bigger. Trent walked over to him and looked down at the baby. He put an arm around my brother and gave him a brief hug, accompanied by a couple of powerful slaps on the shoulder. “It looks like we have a little Beta. I told you there was nothing to be worried about,” Trent told Mike. “I really wouldn’t have minded if he’d been born a common wolf or ranked blood,” my brother responded as he gazed at his son. Only Alphas, Betas, and Gammas could feel the power of a young ranked wolf at birth. The rest of us had to wait until they were able to talk. As they had more focus and control, their power grew stronger. It helped to not give very small children control over adults. The new grandparents swarmed the bed, collecting and cooing over the other two pups. Rock and I stayed back. This was a very special time for all of them. I pulled my magic back to cover only a few feet around me. I was starting to strain while expanding it and moving it around. ‘In a year or so, that will be you having a pup,’ Rock said in our mental link. ‘But in troll culture, the baby and parents are kept away from everyone for a week.’‘Mainly to keep the baby from being eaten and to give the parents time to bond. It’s not just the mother who needs time to bond with the baby,’ he replied. ‘Eaten?’‘It almost never happens anymore.’ That was not as comforting as I’m sure he meant it to be. I shook my head. My life was never boring with all the new things I was learning in the fae lands. All the troll history and tradition Rock was teaching me was expanding my world. I could smell my brother getting closer, and he entered the range for my magic. Mike was carrying his son. He came close and stopped in front of us. “Do you want to hold him?” Mike asked me. “Yes,” I replied with a smile.We carefully worked together to get the baby gently moved into my arms. I’d held babies before, but I had never felt as much love as I did just then. My brother and Beth went through so much to get to this moment, finally. “What’s his name?” I asked. “Yes, what did you name them?” my mother asked Beth. Beth chuckled. “This little girl is Erica, and this little guy is Asher.” “The future Beta of the Hallowed Moon Pack is Gareth,” Mike added as he tickled his son’s cheek. Rock moved a little closer. He hadn’t touched me since I got the baby and actually took a couple of steps back when Mike brought him over. In our bond, I could feel some very confusing emotions. The one thing that surprised me most was nervousness. My mate was never nervous, at least not that I’d ever seen or felt. He was always commanding and in control. I took a small step backward, toward him. ‘Are you okay?’ I asked in our link.‘He’s so damned small. And he’s the biggest one. They look breakable,’ he replied. Gareth didn’t seem small to me. His sister and brother were quite a bit smaller, from what I’d seen with my magic. Gareth was about six pounds. That was huge for a triplet. “Do you want to hold him?” I asked Rock. Rock hesitated for a moment, but then nodded his head. I carefully placed Gareth in his arms, making sure he was well-supported. Rock’s eyes widened as he looked down at the tiny baby in his arms. His expression softened as Gareth let out a small yawn and snuggled closer to him.“He’s not afraid of me,” Rock whispered. “You’re his uncle. Of course, he’s not afraid of you. He’s heard your voice most weekends ever since he was conceived. And he can feel that you love him,” I replied. “I thought his little werewolf instincts would tell him I was something that used to eat babies.... Not that we do that anymore,” he said quickly, looking around the room. I laughed. There were a few other chuckles in the room, but they seemed a little nervous. Except for Beth and Mike. They didn’t seem nervous at all. We spent another hour with the new family, getting to hold all the babies. Each of the triplets seemed to like Rock. It made me so happy to know he had that. In all the times that we were around children, which weren’t many, it always seemed to make him a little sad when they would fear him. Everyone started leaving after Beth began dozing. As we got outside of the hospital, walking back to our truck, Rock suddenly stopped and turned to me. His expression was serious, and I could feel the weight of his thoughts through our bond.“Is everything okay?” I asked. “What if our baby is that small? What if I step on it? What if I drop it and it lands on its head? They were too small, Carmen. I don’t think I can do it.” I reached out and took his hand. Ever since the night I met him, I had been in love with the size of him. Not just the fun parts, but feeling so safe and protected with his enormous arms and hands around me. Rock was everything I wanted in a partner, and I knew our child would feel just as safe and protected with him. “There is no way in the world that our pup is going to be that small. Triplets are much smaller than singletons. Plus, their daddy is a troll. So those genes will make them bigger. I’m betting the reason I can’t carry more than one of your babies has something to do with that, as much as their natural strength and whatever else. “Rock, you are going to be an amazing father. Being afraid of those things will make you more cautious. I’m sure our baby will be more fragile than a troll baby, but they will be more durable than a werewolf baby. We can do this because we’ll be together. This isn’t something we have to be alone for,” I told him. He was quiet. I knew he had worries and one small lecture wouldn’t fix that. The only option was for him to grow as we went. With luck, he would be more confident by the time we had our baby, but it was fine if he wasn’t. We’d work through it together.